GoalRemember what a habitat is, what plants and animals need, and where different living things live.
New words
habitat · the natural home of a plant or an animalneed · something a living thing must have to stay aliveminibeast · a very small animal, such as an ant or a snail
Explanation
Let us remember what we learned about habitats. A habitat is the natural home of a plant or an animal. Plants need light, water, air and soil. Animals need food, water, air and shelter. A seed will not grow well in a very hot, dry place or a freezing place, but it can grow where there is water. Different animals have habitats of different sizes. A snail lives in a small patch of garden. A fox travels across fields and woods, and a whale swims across a whole ocean. Animals that eat plants need plants nearby, and animals that eat other animals need those animals nearby.
Worked examples
A seed planted in a pot with soil, water and light grows into a plant. A seed in a dark, dry cupboard does not.
A frog lives near a pond. A camel lives in a hot desert. Each animal lives where it can find what it needs.
An owl sleeps in a tree in the day and hunts mice in the fields at night. Its habitat is much bigger than a snail’s.
Class activity
Habitat quiz game (with an adult): draw four habitats on cards (pond, forest, desert, sea) and four animals on small papers. Turn over an animal and place it on the habitat where it lives. Say one thing it needs and where it finds it there.
Practice
1
Write the four things a plant needs.
Light, water, air and soil.
2
Which of these animals would you find in a hot desert?
A, the camel.
3
Which animal has the bigger habitat, a worm or a fox?
The fox. It travels far to find food.
4
A forest has more living things than a desert. Give one reason.
A forest has more water and plants, so there is more food and shelter.
